Living simply with a handful and quietness

I'm slowly coming back.....

I've been dehydrated now 6 times, I've lost 20 pounds, and I'm 17 weeks now. Wow. Amazing experience. I can honestly say the only way I have made it through the last 13 weeks is that I have been carried through....the only way I can see.

The baby seems to be fine - the doctors only concern is about nutrition. I have to check my ketones daily, and when they're high go to L&D for more iv hydration. The problem is that often even water causes me to vomit, and when I am dehdrated, everything that goes in, if I can get it down, goes right back up. It's an interesting experience. I go back to the doctor in a week - we'll see what he says then!!! :D

I'm getting into something new though - I am doing my best to save $1000 before the baby comes. Now that's only going to come from me spending less out of my cash budget, and selling little things either via garage sale or craigslist. I also am going to see what I can save on bills too - anything less than what we budget allows me to put that extra in savings. I plan on presenting my husband with that $1K right before we have our baby, telling him that it's in part to pay for the delivery. I think he'll LOVE it - it'd be a nice surprise for him.

So what I've done so far today is made a homemade cake for his lunches (deleting the need for prepackaged little debbies) and I had DH string a rope for me from the tree to the swing set for a temporary clothesline and I hung out 3 loads of clothes. In the 95+ degree weather it was a sacrifice, but that alone saved me $1.50 on the electric bill since our dryer typically uses $.50 worth with every load. :)

Also am going to start cloth diapering - anyone have any suggestions there? I'm looking at buying used, and I of course and going with the cheapest method - flats/prefolds with covers. I seriously think this will save tons - maybe not so much now since Ryan only goes through 6-8 diapers a day, but especially with the new little one. I cloth diapered with Ryan for 2 months, but I got caught up in a forum online where a lot of mamas are in the obsession and collecting mode - one mama alone has over $5,000 in just diapers!!!!!! WOW! When you buy the really expensive though beautiful diapers, it's not really saving you money, and that was my peeve last time. Using cheaper options should help this time!

It's time to drag things off the line, so off I go!